Grant County site favored for reservoir

A drainage east of the Columbia River in Grant County is the state’s top choice for a reservoir to hold water from the river and ease chronic water shortages in Eastern Washington.

A site on Hawk Creek, about 45 miles northwest of Spokane, is still being considered. State officials say it would cost about three times more to build there than the top choice at Crab Creek.

The proposed reservoir could hold up to 2.65 million acre-feet of water at an estimated cost of up to $3 billion. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land a foot deep.

The reservoir is intended to improve conditions for fish and power by storing water from the Columbia during wet seasons. The water would be used to increase stream flows during dry periods, while providing more water for growing communities and irrigators who face having their water shut off in lean years.

Such proposals have been floated for years, but they became more pointed in 2005 when farmers, fish and cities suffered in a severe drought. Late that year, state and federal officials listed 11 potential reservoir sites. They narrowed that list to four last fall.

The state Department of Ecology on Friday announced that Crab Creek was the preferred option, but that Sand Hollow and Hawk Creek also passed an early analysis for technical qualifications for a reservoir.

Sand Hollow also is east of the Columbia River, nearly four miles north of Wanapum Dam, while Hawk Creek is south of the river about 40 miles upstream of Grand Coulee Dam in Lincoln County.

The site removed from the list, Foster Creek, is in northern Douglas County just south of Chief Joseph Dam.

Yvonne Eyler’s family owns 440 acres in Indian Canyon, portions of which would be flooded if Hawk Creek is dammed. Eyler, of Spokane, said several homes would be flooded, including her father’s.

“I’d end up with waterfront property, but I don’t want that,” Eyler said. “I’m fighting this because I think we as a society need to do more to conserve water.”

The state has performed its obligation to study existing data to locate potential sites for dams to store water near the Columbia. Any further evaluation or a feasibility study will require authorization from Congress, said Joye Redfield-Wilder, spokeswoman for the Ecology Department.

“According to this appraisal, the Crab Creek site is the most cost-effective and the most geotechnically friendly. It’s also flexible in that you could do a smaller size or you could move it up to a larger size reservoir,” she said. “It’s much more cost effective than the other two, however they show potential from the geotechnical standpoint.”

Environmental critics say Crab Creek, about four miles south of Wanapum Dam, would flood a wildlife refuge and damage habitat for endangered fish.

The Crab Creek reservoir would inundate the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, private property and critical habitat for endangered steelhead, said Rob Masonis, senior director of the Northwest office of the environmental group American Rivers.

“We need a thorough and accurate analysis of our water needs and whether those needs can be met by more cost-effective and less-damaging alternatives, including more efficient water use, water conservation and market-based tools,” he said in a statement.

“Global warming threatens to fundamentally change rivers and water supply in Washington. Until we answer two critical questions – how much water will we need and where will we need it – we should not invest more time and money further analyzing particular dam sites.”

The Columbia River storage proposals are separate from ideas for water storage in the Yakima Valley.